Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2025: technical consultation analysis
We commissioned independent analysis on the response to the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) reform – lodgement fees and penalty charges: technical consultation that took place from 12 February 2025 to 28 March 2025, the third and final of three consultations on EPC Reform.
Introduction
Background
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) play a key role in Scotland’s property market. They ensure that current or potential owners and tenants have information on a property’s energy efficiency and emissions, and on potential improvements that could be made. Over 200,000 EPCs are issued every year, covering a range of households, workplaces, and community buildings across Scotland.
The Scottish Government has a long-standing commitment to improving EPCs, ensuring that they are of high quality and provide information that is aligned with net zero policy objectives.
To support such improvements, the Scottish Government has conducted various public consultations. An initial scoping consultation was undertaken in 2021. This was followed by a consultation in 2023 which sought views on a final package of proposed reforms to improve the quality of EPCs and make them more fit for purpose in supporting net zero. The Scottish Government’s response to the 2023 EPC Reform Consultation was published in January 2025, which detailed the reforms that would be taken forward and set out intentions to introduce new EPC regulation.
The new EPC regulations will be laid out in the Scottish Parliament later in 2025, and are expected to come into force in 2026. These regulations will enable the Scottish Government to introduce strengthened operational governance arrangements for the Approved Organisations (AOs) and EPC assessor market, and will enhance quality assurance for consumers. The level of EPC lodgement fees have not been revised since 2017. However, these will need to be updated to support the development and ongoing maintenance of the regulatory infrastructure, and to support the costs of delivering the new operational framework. In addition, the level of penalty charges have not been reviewed since 2009, and so revisions may also be needed to ensure these remain effective. To inform these changes, the Scottish Government conducted a further technical consultation to seek feedback on the proposals.
The Consultation
The technical consultation ran for just over six weeks, opening on 12 February and closing on 28 March 2025.
The consultation was available on Citizen Space, the Scottish Government’s online portal for public consultations. In addition, respondents could submit written responses via email or post. Three themed public workshop events were also conducted to gather qualitative feedback.
The purpose of this technical consultation was to:
- Set out the Scottish Government’s intended lodgement fee levels for reformed domestic and non-domestic EPCs when new regulations are brought into force during 2026, and to seek stakeholder views on this
- Seek stakeholder views on the level of penalty charges to be imposed for non-compliance with the new regulations
- Finalise consultation upon EPC Reform ahead of laying the new regulations during 2025
The Citizen Space consultation document asked seven questions in total, including:
- Five questions which included both a closed element (i.e. where respondents were asked to select an option from a list of options) and an open element (i.e. to provide further comments in free text format)
- Two questions which asked only an open element
At each of the three workshop events, Scottish Government staff delivered a presentation which set out the proposals and led discussion focused on the same consultation questions as the main Citizen Space questionnaire. Workshop attendees were also asked to consider the impact of the proposals, both in general and in relation to specific equality groups.
Respondent Profile
In total, 30 written responses were received to the technical consultation, however, one was identified as a duplicate. As this was an identical response from the same respondent it was removed from the data analysis. This resulted in 29 responses being included in the data analysis.
Most responses (n=25, 86%) were received via Citizen Space, although four (14%) were submitted by email and manually entered into the dataset. Overall, 16 responses (55%) were received from organisations, and 13 responses (45%) were from individuals. Among the individuals, five were identified (either from data provided in the Respondent Information Form (RIF) or from within their consultation feedback) as being professionals who worked in the sector. While these respondents were categorised in the data as being ‘professional individuals,’ it should be stressed that a specific question was not asked about this, and so it is not possible to determine with certainty whether other individuals also worked in the sector or not. The table below provides a breakdown of responses by respondent type.
| Respondent Profile - Written Responses | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| All Individuals | 13 | 45% |
| Individuals | 8 | 28% |
| Individuals - sector specific professional background | 5 | 17% |
| All Organisations | 16 | 55% |
| Approved Organisations (AO) | 2 | 7% |
| Built Environment Focused Organisations | 5 | 17% |
| Energy Focused Organisations | 3 | 10% |
| Real Estate Focused Organisations | 3 | 10% |
| Local Authorities1 | 3 | 10% |
| Total | 29 |
1 The local authorities included one mainland authority, one rural mainland authority, and one island authority.
Note: this table does not add up to 100% due to rounding.
In addition to the written responses, 46 people attended the workshops. While the workshops were advertised to all via Citizen Space, all of the attendees represented organisations working in relevant sectors. The table below outlines the number of attendees from each organisational sector.
| Respondent Profile - Workshop Events | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Approved Organisations (AO) | 2 | 4% |
| Chartered Surveyors | 3 | 7% |
| Consumer Advice Bodies | 2 | 4% |
| Design and Build Consultants | 4 | 9% |
| Energy Focused Organisations | 13 | 28% |
| Equality Rights Groups | 1 | 2% |
| Financial Services Providers | 1 | 2% |
| Heating Systems Manufacturers | 3 | 7% |
| Housing Associations1 | 3 | 7% |
| Local Authorities2 | 7 | 15% |
| Real Estate Software Platforms | 3 | 7% |
| Representative Trade Bodies | 4 | 9% |
| Total | 46 |
1 The housing associations included two from mainland Scotland and one island area.
2 The local authorities included six mainland authorities and one island authority.
Note: this table does not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Caveats
Not all respondents answered all questions. In addition, some respondents answered the closed element at individual questions but did not provide free-text comments at the open question element (or vice versa). Respondents may also have participated in the consultation in multiple ways. For example, it was possible for people to attend more than one event and/or to submit both a written response and attend a workshop event. For completeness, all data provided was included in the analysis. Further, all responses were treated with equal weight within the analysis.
Due to the small number of responses received overall, elements of the following reporting (e.g. individual issues or topics) are often based on feedback from just one or two respondents. The small numbers meant it was difficult to identify recurring topics or themes. As such, the report sets out a high-level summary across the breadth of comments and feedback provided.
Similarly, while the total sample consisted of respondents from different organisational sectors, as well as individuals and those working within the sector (as outlined above), the following results are typically disaggregated at the individual versus organisational level only. The small numbers, both overall and within respondent groups, meant it was difficult to identify any differences in opinions between different sectors/groups, with some issues only raised by one respondent each.
Where respondents gave permission for their responses to be published, these can be read on the Scottish Government’s website.
In addition to considering the main issues covered by the consultation paper, the workshop events also involved broader discussion of other EPC issues. This included the introduction of RdSAP 10[1] and the Home Energy Model (HEM). These events also provided stakeholders with the opportunity to ask questions of the Scottish Government team, both in relation to the current proposals as well as wider issues. The findings in this report focus on the parts of the workshop feedback which were directly related to the consultation topics and questions.
While the workshop events considered the same consultation questions as those included in the Citizen Space questionnaire, discussions tended to focus more generally on the higher-level topics rather than the specific questions asked. As such, the results have been presented under separate coverage at the relevant sections below. Similar issues were often highlighted between the written responses and the workshop feedback and, therefore, elements of repetition may be contained below.
No quotes have been extracted from the workshop events as permission and informed consent was not sought for this. As such, all quotes contained within this report are extracted from the written consultation responses. Quotes have only been used from responses where permission was provided to ‘publish the response’ in the RIF.
Finally, the findings here reflect only the views of those who chose to respond to this consultation. It should be noted that respondents to a consultation are a self-selecting group, and only a small number of responses were received for the current exercise. The findings should not, therefore, be considered as statistically robust or representative of the views of the wider population.
Contact
Email: EPCenquiries@gov.scot